Festival History

How long has the festival existed?

It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. The festival’s roots go all the way back to 1989, when the Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA) worked with a broad variety of community groups and committees to produce the 100-year commemoration of the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889. One of the most popular events of the year-long commemoration was a large street fair in the historic Cambria City neighborhood.

Based in part on the success of that event, JAHA, City and Commonwealth officials successfully raised the money to bring the National Folk Festival to Johnstown in 1990 for a three-year run. Again, the festival was held in Cambria City over Labor Day weekend. JAHA became the sole producer of the event, which was renamed the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest in 1994 when AmeriServ Financial became the event’s title sponsor. JAHA continued to stage the event over Labor Day weekend.

As festival grew, so did challenges associated with holding the festival in the residential neighborhood of Cambria City. These included liability concerns, lack of parking, and development of empty lots needed to stage the festival. In 2004, JAHA moved the festival to a plot of land adjacent to downtown with the intent of developing it into a park that would serve as a home for the festival and as a catalyst for other special events.

In 2009, the festival was renamed the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival to better reflect the types of music offered, and the dates moved from Labor Day weekend. Since 2010 the festival has been held annually on the first weekend in August.

With the help of a $2 million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a lead gift from Peoples Natural Gas, JAHA realized the goal of developing the Peoples Natural Gas Park in 2012.

AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest 1995

Maggie Christl
Greenfields of America
C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band
Tim & Mollie O’Brien and the O’Boys
Sleepy LaBeef
The Dixie Hummingbirds
Phillip Fankhauser and the Checkerboard Blues Band
The Grace Family
Heather Eatman
Joe Grkman Band

AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest 1994

Johnny Clyde Copeland
Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers
Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band
Alex Torres and the Latin Kings
J.D. Crowe and the New South
Lenny Gomulka’s Chicago Push
Jimmy Sapienza and Five Guys Named Moe
Casco Bay Tummlers
John Bagnato Quartet